Indianapolis Lawrence North sophomore Ryan Taylor and Michael Chandler gave Pitino the good news just minutes after the win over UK in Freedom Hall.

“We told Richard Pitino and he said there couldn’t be a better day than this,” Taylor told The Courier-Journal. “And then when we told coach Pitino, he told us he didn’t like champagne but that he was going to get a bottle tonight.”

Taylor is a 6-foot-6 forward who picked the Cardinals over Cincinnati, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana and Kentucky. The 6-11 Chandler picked U of L over Ohio State, Kentucky, Indiana and Florida.

U of L already has two players form the perennial powerhouse Lawrence North program, which produced NBA players Greg Oden and Mike Conley among other past All-State picks. Stephan Van Treese signed with U of L in November and will be a freshman next fall, while junior Justin Martin has already committed to the Cardinals.

Maybe I’m missing someone, but I believe Todd Leary is the only notable player in recent history from Lawrence North to end up in Bloomington. The mass exodus from Jack Keefer’s program, one of the things Tom Crean hoped to end, seems to be as vibrant as ever.

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